Michelle 2020 Push Shows Lack of Talent on the Left

With the Democrats’ humiliating loss in the most recent United States election season, losing the Presidency, the House and Senate and controlling only 16 governorships and 31 state legislative chambers, they are now turning their eyes to the next election cycle. Democrats are specifically looking at who their Presidential nominee should be in 2020 in the hope of defeating President-elect Trump. One of the names that has been repeatedly put forward is current First Lady Michelle Obama. Despite the fact that Michelle has ruled out a 2020 presidential run at this early stage this hasn’t stopped a lot of social media chatter fantasizing about a potential run by her and bookmakers having her the odds on favourite to clinch the 2020 Democratic Party nomination.

Despite that American voters have just rejected having a former First Lady as President of the United States and creating another political dynasty, the fact that there is even serious discussion about having Michelle Obama as the next potential nominee shows there is a severe lack of talent on the left side of politics. Let’s remember that Hillary Clinton was considered the presumptive Democratic Party nominee even before the 2016 primaries were underway. There were only 5 Democratic presidential candidates this campaign compared to 17 on the Republican side. It was to everyone’s surprise that Bernie Sanders, the last candidate standing against Clinton, came so close to defeating her in the primaries (and maybe would have won if the primaries were not rigged in her favour).

In the aftermath of Clinton’s defeat there is not a sizeable list of Democratic politicians who have the skills, experience and charisma to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. On the Republican side you could easily name 20 politicians with both the skills and record to be the next party nominee in 2024. This leadership vacuum on the Democratic side is largely why Michelle Obama has been heralded as the most likely Presidential nominee. However, apart from being First Lady and being a successful lawyer she doesn’t have a large amount of solid political or business experience. Being First Lady for eight years is simply not enough, Hillary herself has been both First Lady and a senator for years and even she lost.

The left it seems are desperate to have a female President as soon as possible and would love a woman to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. But think about it progressives, if Michelle was nominated in 2020 think about the message it would send to women everywhere? That the only way you can achieve anything in life is if you married a successful man? You couldn’t make it on your abilities alone you had to rely on the strength of your husband?

Trump was elected because he was considered the anti-establishment candidate, an outsider who took on the political class and the media elites. Michelle Obama has already been in the White House for 8 years married to a career politician, she would represent the status quo in politics and a return to past policies the American people had just rejected. The American people have also rejected identity politics, the fact that Hillary Clinton made such a big deal that she would have been the first female President is evidence that having such a milestone was not an issue of concern for ordinary voters. The left need to stop this obsession with having a woman or someone else from a minority group as President and just look for the best person for the job.

With four years to go until the next Presidential election it is obvious that speculation about who will be the Democratic presidential nominee is premature. Nobody thought that Trump would be the Republican nominee four years ago or thought that even Barack Obama would be the Democratic party nominee after the 2004 Presidential election.

But it is clear that the Democratic Party has a lack of talent with its current politicians. This is party due largely to their progressive, big government and identity politics driven policies which have seen them do so poorly this election season. The fact that not many of their politicians are getting elected due to these poor policies has contributed to this shallow talent pool. Democrats need to learn the lessons of this election cycle and do some serious reflection about their poor results. The fact that Trump won key Democratic working class strongholds shows they must not cling on to the past and broaden their search for candidates who will have an appeal to ordinary American voters.